Times reporters blog about high school sports across the Southland

Boys' basketball: Michael Avery is back at Crespi

Michael Avery, who started his high school career as a promising freshman at Encino Crespi, then played last season at Montverde in Florida, has returned to Crespi for his junior year.

I ran into Avery Monday afternoon at Crespi and was surprised to see him. He has grown to 6 feet 5 and seems more mature than the last time I saw him as a freshman.

He intends to play point guard and shooting guard for the Celts if he can gain a hardship waiver this season. If not, he seems set on staying with the Celts.

Regardless, he adds more talent to a Mission League that keeps picking up players. And, if Woodland Hills Taft guard Landon Drew ends up transferring to North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake as expected, it's going to create quite a league competition for 2010-11.

Update: No Harvard-Westlake for Drew. That's the word from Wolverine people in the know.